1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to load balancing in wireless communications, and more particularly, to load balancing management using traffic type, forward-link load level and/or reverse-link load level of the access network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to communication technology advancements in recent years, several mobile communication technologies, such as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) technology, 1× Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (1×CDMA 2000), 1× Evolution-Data Optimized (1×EVDO) system, and Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, etc., have been developed to provide high communication rates. In a service network, an access network (AN) is equipped with an antenna, serving as a cell of the mobile communication system. An access terminal (AT) transceives radio signals from the AN, and thereby obtains data communication services. The AN may be connected to a mobile switching system which is further connected to a telephone/data network. The AN converts between RF signals and telephonic/data signals to allow communication between the AT and other communication terminals somewhere else in the telephone/data network. The coverage areas of multiple ANs may overlap in order to ensure that an AN is selected for providing communication services to the AT. Since there are concurrent services of multiple ANs, the mobile switching system must determine which AN will provide services to the AT. In a conventional mobile communication system, the choice of the AN is determined by comparing the signal strength of signals between the AT and each involved ANs. Generally, the AN with the strongest signal strength is assigned to provide communication services to the AT.
However, there may be situations where many ATs flock into the coverage of an AN or all ATs in the coverage of an AN request high bandwidth usage from the AN, which both cause a overload of the AN and result in rejected requests from any new ATs in the same area. Thus, in order to increase the serving capacity of a service network, it is preferred to have the loading of a service network evenly distributed among the ANs. Meanwhile, it is also desirable to serve all ATs in such a way that good performance can be achieved for the ATs and the service network.